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How To Check Aadhaar Authentication History Online And Prevent Misuse - Outside View by PersonalFN

How To Check Aadhaar Authentication History Online And Prevent Misuse

Dec 29, 2017

Last year, you had to stand in long queues to withdraw cash from your bank account. Demonetisation was a dreadful experience for most.

This year, if you don't link Aadhaar to your bank account or various other financial services, your accounts may be blocked. Another terrifying experience in the making.

Imagine not having access to your bank account or not being able to redeem your mutual fund units or being restricted from buying and selling equity shares. The liabilities can be unimaginable.

Indian citizens are getting frantic as the deadline to link Aadhaar to important documents and services is just around the corner.

While online facilities are available in most, imagine the woes of those who are not very tech savvy such as senior citizens or those who do not have access to the internet. Many cooperative banks, stock broking firms and insurance companies too, do not provide an online facility. Individuals will need to take leave from work to get their Aadhaar linked to these services.

Further to this, the government notified "31st March, 2018 or six months from the date of commencement of account based relationship by the client, whichever is later, as the date of submission of the Aadhaar Number, and Permanent Account Number or Form 60 by the clients to the reporting entity." Thus, March 31, 2018 is the new deadline for linking Aadhaar to all other financial services such as bank accounts, insurance, credit cards, demat, PPF, etc.

Given this frenzy to link Aadhaar, there will be a significant rise in fraudulent activity as well. Phishers are on the prowl to gain your demographic information that is linked to your Aadhaar card number.

Phishing is the obtaining of sensitive information with the intention to commit identity frauds. The culprits are known as phishers.

Thus, you need to check the authenticity of a website before you submit your Aadhaar details online. Check the URL of the website and whether the website is secured. This is denoted by a green padlock sign near the URL.

Even when you submit physical copies or scan copies of your Aadhaar, do mention the date and purpose for which the Aadhaar copy is being used; so that, photocopies of the documents cannot be misused. In the past, there have been cases where mobile numbers were procured by such identity thefts.

Given the privacy concern over the usage of Aadhaar, which stores your biometric and demographic information, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has introduced a service that tracks when your Aadhaar details have been accessed from their servers.

Through this service, you can verify when an agency has gained authorisation to access Demographic, Biometric, and One-Time Passwords (OTPs). UIDAI provides the Aadhaar authentication history of the past six months only.

If you notice any misuse, the UIDAI also provides an option to lock or secure the biometrics linked to the Aadhaar number. You can lock and unlock the Aadhaar biometrics as and when required.

PersonalFN will now outline the steps through which you can view your Aadhaar authentication history online.

This is the final step. After generating the OTP, you will be redirected to a page as below:

In the first field defined as 'Authentication Type', you need to select from a dropdown as below:

You can choose to view all authentication types pertaining to Demographics, Biometric or OTP, or a single option or a pair. If you are unsure which option to choose, select 'All'.

After this, you need to define the date range. You can pick a range within the past six months only. If you are using this service for the first time, you may choose the entire six months period.

The maximum records are limited to 50. Here again, if unsure, set '50' as your requirement. If you have more than 50 records in the past six months, you can modify the date range or authentication type to view all records.

Enter the OTP received and click 'Submit'.

On successful verification of the OTP, you will be provided with the Aadhaar Authentication history as below:

Though the information is cryptic, the transaction ID provides the name of the service provider in some cases. By checking the date and time too, you will have an idea if the authorisation for Aadhaar was given or not. If you see an authentication failure along with an error code, you may view the details of the error code on page 27 of this document: https://uidai.gov.in/images/FrontPageUpdates/aadhaar_authentication_api_2_0.pdf. Authentication may have failed due to mismatch in biometric data, invalid OTP, Biometrics locked or some other technical reasons.

In case you find any misuse of your biometric information, or if you wish to prevent possible misuse, you can do so as below:

Enter your 12-digit Aadhaar number and Security code. Then, click on 'Send OTP' in order to receive the OTP on your registered mobile number. Once the OTP is received, enter this number in the field provided on the right hand side. And click 'Submit'

Step 3: Enable Aadhaar Biometric Lock

On successful authentication of the OTP, you will be given the option to enable biometric locking for your Aadhaar number. All you need to do is enter the security code and click on 'Enable'.

By enabling Aadhaar Biometric locking, your biometrics (use of fingerprint & iris) will be locked against any biometric authentication attempt. Once done, you will receive a confirmation message as below:

Do note, once enabled, you will be unable to authenticate your identity using your fingerprint or iris. You can unlock biometrics temporarily for any authentication requirements. You can also disable the Locked Biometrics. But before that, you will be required to login using your Aadhaar.

To conclude...

Many are stressed with the Aadhaar linking process, especially for financial intermediaries where there is no online facility. Many financial service providers are yet to provide a system for online linking of Aadhaar. What is more cumbersome, is that the process differs from one to the other.

Had the government put in more thought and consulted all the stakeholders to ensure a better implementation, the entire process could have been streamlined to prevent an additional burden to individuals.

Just like demonetisation, where the costs outweighed the benefits, the Aadhaar linking project, aimed to prevent money laundering, seems to be headed in the same direction. At the end of it, the aam aadmi suffers, while the businesses have to bear the costs of implementation.

As the government makes the laws, Indian citizens need to comply or risk being debarred access to their own money.

Linking your Aadhaar is just a temporary phase. Those concerned with Aadhaar misuse, can keep a tab on when and where their demographic information has been accessed. You can even go a step further to secure your biometrics as highlighted in the article.

At PersonalFN, we are committed to providing you unbiased and honest views and opinions on various personal finance issues that can affect your investments and finances. We have been providing personalised Financial Planning solutions to our clients in India as well as to NRIs so as to help them meet their financial goals and objectives.

PersonalFN is a Mumbai based personal finance firm offering Financial Planning and Mutual Fund Research services.

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